Cold Morning

Came into "town" this morning for another cup of coffee. I'm sitting in the Wide Awake Cafe using their computer, so no photos. Too cold for the snow to melt off the roads, so slow and easy is the key word. Suppose to snow all week through the weekend. The casino Super Bowl parties will probably be quiet this year, especially if the tribal casinos in the valley have sports book. Not sure what I'm doing for Super Bowl; was invited to a friends house, and there is always the casinos or stay at home. Leaning towards staying at home and eating some high caloric food. It's a tradition, right?

I'm getting back into a creative mode. After following up on the leads from the Home Show and Expo Daily, I'm going to start creating some new and different art. The first one used high-density polyurethane, and I might still continue with that medium, though it is pricey. I did a little of it back in June for an local hanging, and want to continue. Still planning on going to art shows even after lackluster results at the first two. Planning on re-evaluating my selection and inventory. "Never say never" (James Bond). Or Ian Fleming. Or maybe neither.

Back in the Hills

Been down in Sacramento for the Northern California Home & Landscaping Show. Over 50,000 people braving the bad weather to stroll through several buildings of displays. I was there with my booth promoting murals and faux finishes. It was a very good show. Got a lot of leads and talked with a lot of people. Long hours was a bit tiring; 8 hrs. on Fri., 10 on Sat., and another 8 on Sun. Interesting people. Got to know my immediate neighbors. Everyone passing out candy to entice the people in. Not me. I watched and it was more like "trick or treat". Grab the candy and run. By jove, if they came into my booth, it was because of the murals and finishes. I did, however, help myself to some of my neighbor's candy.

There was a display built by a pool company just up the aisle from me that was pretty impressive. It was a complete swiming pool, complete with water, fountains, landscaping, etc. They only had two days to build it, then tear it all down Sunday night and Monday morning. I've included a couple of pics of it, as well as my booth.

It's good to be back home, even though I had to go through a snow storm to get here. Not much internet reception where I was, so good to be back online.

I Have A Dream...

...that the Patriots will win the Super Bowl. What? You expected something more meaningful? Sorry, but not today. Maybe later.

Graffiti

Graffiti: art or vandalizm? Just watched a short doc about SF graffiti called Piece by Piece (2oo4). Yes, there is some wonderful imagery. There is also a lot of unsightly (in my opinion) tagging. Much of graffiti is about getting your name around town. Many times, that is all there is, just your name. That's totally ego. But where and how can we draw the line. If graffiti is a form of expressive freedom, then it must apply to all. However, since it usually also involves private and public property, then it also invades into the lives of others. Conventional art, also a form of creative expression, is controlled by the market to distinguish "good" art from "bad". Graffiti art is not controlled by the market, so good vs bad cannot be distinquished. California passed Prop. 21, making graffiti, tagging and marking a felony if the damages exceed $400. This has been somewhat effective in curtailing graffiti, but also adds to the adventure. Putting up posters on wlls with wheat paste appears to be legal. If graffiti artists painted on paper, then glued it up, would it be legal then? I'm really not sure where I stand on the issue. I see both sides, and sympathize with both sides. I've painted on a lot of walls, but always with permission and usually for profit. Now back to the playoffs.

Home Repairs

Saturday was pretty much spent on an electrical repair. The problem was eventually traced to the ceiling fan, where the infrared remote sensor had shorted and fried several wires. Amazingly, the circuit breaker had not tripped. A new circuit breaker is in order. In the meantime, the repair involved climbing into the attic to splice some new wires into the ceiling fan. The fan was in a room that had been added by the previous owners, and had a very narrow roof pitch since the room was narrow. This meant crawling on my stomach, barely being able to raise my head, across ceiling joists. When I stopped to make the splice, I had one joist across my chest, another on my waist, and another somewhere down on my legs. The chest and stomach areas became a very uncomfortable situation, and the fiberglass insulation and squirrel droppings around me added to the discomfort. I had to snake into that position, and snake out in reverse to retreat. This was my third trip up there, since part of the problem involved tracing wires. The previous trips had not involved going as far forward as the final trip. I would not recommend this to anyone. Good part is that I removed the sensor and rewired the fan/light to work on manual until a new sensor can be found.

Wine Bottle

When I did the mural in the Expo Daily for my booth showing a vineyard, I thought I would have some fun with the wine bottle. Here is a close up of the bottle.

Expo Daily

Finally finished my display booth at the Expo Daily in Roseville. Also finished several others for clients. When I finished yesterday, there were two other mural artists there doing work. Introduced myself and found out I was already known about. One person, Susie Alexander, was one of three artists featured in a magazine a few years ago. I was one of the others. She said she had been hoping to meet me sometime. Likewise on my part. The three of us visited for awhile at the Expo Daily, then we got back to work. Susie was working on a mural for a pool company. I had just finished a mural for another pool company. Her style is very similar to mine. Always fun meeting your competition. Funny thing was that all three of us lived in the mountains. We were wondering where all the Sacramento artists were. One photo is my booth, the second is a shot of the common area with another mural I did (the Italian street scene).

Frazetta

Saw a wonderful movie this evening about artist Frank Frazetta. Called "Frank Frazetta-Painting with Fire". Rented it from Netflix. Though I haven't persued Frazetta's work, I certainly have admired it. He came from that genre of artists who developed during the 50's and 60's. Wallace Wood is one of my favorites from that era, and I have persued his work. Frazetta is responsible for spawning a new generation of sci-fi artists, as a walk down the aisles of Comic-Con will bear witness to. His figures are usually heroic and muscular, man and woman. He began as an illustrator and comic book artist, emerging as a fine artist. There are those who scoff at illustrators as fine artists, but one must remember that artist like Michelangelo illustrated for a book as well. His was the bible, and the pieces were on frescoes and canvas. They did, however, tell a story.

Frank Frazetta is still alive today, though a series of strokes has left his right hand useless. He has adapted by learning to draw with his left hand and is doing quite well with it. His wife Ellie saved most of his paintings through the years and started a museum on their property in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. Its been open to the public for about six years or so. Sounds like a fun place to visit. Will have to put it on the "bucket list".

Sunny Sunday

Made it back to Tahoe yesterday, then went out to Kirkwood Inn for a snowshoe clinic. Tried on some Tubb shoes for a short hike, then came back and tried on a pair of MSR shoes. Really liked the MSR. Lighter, more traction and better floatation. Yeah, now I'm an expert. Not to mention that all the trail guides were wearing MSR. Lot of fun.

Switching gears to current events. One of my favorite recent Doonesbury comic strips came out last year during the height of the Iraqi civil war. It was in the dailies and was in black and white. This morning in the Sacramento bee was the same strip, though rendered in color. I have included it here for your perusal. Note: the version in the Washington Post has two additional panels in the beginning, but were not important for the message, so the Sac Bee edited them out.

Billy Joel

A Burning Man friend sent this link to me. It takes a couple minutes to load, depending on your connection, but is very entertaining. http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html Check it out when you get a chance.

Amazed

Is it just me, or are we living in some pretty fantastic times? Today, about noon, I finished one of the four jobs I've been working on. So I went out to the truck, picked up a digital camera and my laptop, then took a picture of my work. I then emailed it to the client to confirm I was done. They have more work to do in the booth by their own crews. Anyway, it took about five minutes to take the picture and send the email. I know you can also do it on some phones (not mine), but I am still amazed we can do that. In the old days, when a client called to ask how I was doing on their job (graphic design), we (most all graphic designers) all told a white lie and said fine, "I'll come by your office in the morning". Then we would actually start the project and work all night. This was in the 70's, before the fax. The fax machine started making us more honest. We could always stall sending a fax of the job, you know, "The fax machine is temporarily down". My first fax was in 1989.

Second amazing thing is the ability to listen to radio stations around the world while you type in your blog. I am currently listening to ANET, a radio station in Antartica. It's a blues station. Why Antartica? Why not? Because I can. Earlier I was listening to FM2, a contemporary music station in Dublin, Ireland.

Tuesday Evening

I'm still in the Sacramento area, all cuddled up in my little rv trailer in Loomis. Working in the Expo Daily building on four different projects (talk about multi-tasking). Check out the website on this place: www.expodaily.us

Raining on and off here, so a little more snow in Tahoe. Still haven't come up with anything profound to discuss yet, but I'm working on it. Guess the weather will be it.

Sunday Night

Finally made it to the spa at 8 pm. You know, there is almost something sinister about sitting in the spa while the air temperature is below freezing and there is about three feet of snow all around you. But it was nice to look up at the stars, wherever the clouds had parted. Might get a few inches more of snow this evening.

I'm taking off for the Sacramento area tomorrow morning to do a couple of jobs. Won't leave too early, need to let the roads stabilize. There is still snow on the roads over the pass. Should be down there most of the coming week. Will try to keep the blog up and running. Maybe even become more thought provoking. We'll see.

Sunday Morning

A little more snow last night. After the morning cup of coffee, I will take care of the snow blowing on the driveway and clear the spa on the back deck. Then I am going to soak for awhile as I contemplate the next step.

Saturday night

Another day and night of snow blowing and shoveling. More snow due tonight, leveling off tomorrow (Sunday). I brought art supplies home with me on Thursday, figuring I would have lots of time to create. However, the above (and football) have kept me occupied. Maybe a little creativity tomorrow will be in order. Did watch a good documentary from Netflix today about Alfred Steiglitz, a photographer in New York during the turn of the 20th century. He later married Georgia O'Keefe, though they lived apart quite a bit. Guess that was my creativity for the day.

New Blog for New Year

This is the beginning of my blog. Hopefully, I'll have a lot to talk about. Right now, however, I'm stuck in a snow storm in Lake Tahoe creating a blog.